Wideband built-in receiver antenna



y 1952 w. R. KOCH WIDEBAND BUILT-IN RECEIVER ANTENNA Filed Dec. 30, 1949 \NVENTOR mfi Id [1. X001] A ORN EY Patented July 8, 1952 I i 2,602,892 WIDE-BAND BUILT-IN RECEIVER ANTENNA Application December 30, 1949, Serial No. 136,057 10 Claims. (01. 250-3351) UNITED STATES PATENT i The invention relates to antennas and it p plurality of wires radially arranged andhaving ticularly pertains to antennas located within the connections made by a selector device to allow receiver housings or within an auxiliary cabinet the horizontal directlvity of the antenna pattern for television and frequency modulation recepto be changed in small steps while retaining the tion, and which also can be oriented easily for advantageous wide band performance otherwise optimum reception. provided. p p

Many suggestions have been made for modify- Several embodiment sot the invention will be I ing the prior art antennas for such purposes. described with reference to the accompanying There are in general three requirements to be drawing forming a part of -the specification and met. First, the antenna must be small and comin which: f ,v ,J pact or of such configuration that it takes up Fig. 1 is an arrangement; of a steerable widebut little of ordinarily available space. In other band antenna according to the invention; and words, it must fit operatively into existing struc- Figs. 2a and 2b are illustrations of portions of ture. Second, the antenna must be capable of alternate embodiments based on. the, arrangewide band performance, that is, the reactance ment shownin Fig.1. J j must remain low with variations in frequency, Referring to Fig. 1, thereisshown anantenna so that the signal voltage delivered to the rearrangement which is intended, for mounting in ceiver input terminals is high. Cone or'fan type the interior of a cabinet," such as one used for antennas are capable of wide bandperformance housing a television or frequency,modulation'reand also lend themselves to installation in conceiver, the confines of which are schematically ventional receiver cabinets. It has been sugindicated by the chain line 10. A plurality of gested to meet these two requirements by an anconductors I2 are mounted in radial relationship tenna in the form of thin sheet metal triangles to each other at a central point, and the adjafastened inside of the top of the cabinet, with cent ends are connectedlto terminals H! of a the receiver input transmission line connected to switch 16, shown here as one of the conventional adjacent corners of the two triangles. The diwafer type. Preferably anQevcn number of conrectional pattern of this antenna is a figureductors is employed, although conceivably any eight; and often not directed for maximum signumber can be used. For example, an arrangenal or minimum ghosts. To change the direction ment of 23 conductors substantially equally spaced of these prior art antennas, the entire cabinet will render an effective straightdipole of any two must be rotated, and viewing of the television conductors extendingin substantially opposite image thus spoiled, not forgetting the possibility directions. Also, at least eight conductors are of setting up an unharmonious arrangement bepreferably used in order to provide efiectiveelectween the receiver and the other furnishings of trical rotation in at least 45 steps, although of the room. Hence, a third requirement of such course a greater or smaller number of conducan antenna is that its directivity be variable. tors may be used if finer change in vdirectivity or Rotatableloops and dipole. elements have been only rough orientation is required. Switch It suggested for this purpose but obviously the comprises two switch blades l8, each sumciently space and cost requirements border on the 1111- wide to contact three adjacent switch terminals reasonable. I I 40 at any given position of the switch arm. to which It is an object of the invention to provide a the conductors of a transmission line 20. leading wide-frequency-band steerable antenna of simple to the receiver are connected; f and inexpensive construction for television and In some cases conductors]? will not be suffifrequency modulation receivers overcoming all of ciently lon for best results if they stop at the the foregoing disadvantages. edges of the cabinet and hence endportions l2a It is another object of the invention to provide can be run on down thesides of the cabinet as a connector for an antenna in accordance with shown to improve the pickup and impedance the foregoing object for selectively.interconnectmatch. It is not essential that they all be the ing a television receiver, or frequency modulasame length or that the angles be exactly equal. tion receiver, to a built-in and an external an- If desired (as shown in Fig. 2b), two or more tenna, Without otherwise disturbing the connecwires may be connected to each switch point to tions thereto. provide wider band response and/or sharper di- These and more specific objectsof the invenrectivity. For example, a switch having blades tion which will appear as the specification proconnecting but two adjacentterminals, of eight gresses are attained in an antennacomprising a such terminals having two radially arranged conductors each, will afiord a change of 22% directivity for each position of the switch. Conventional tuning and/or impedance matching elements may, of course, be interposed between the antenna and the transmission line if desired.

In place of switch I6 is shown in Fig. 1, conductors [2 may be terminated at a socket member 22, on, the order of a tube socket, having equally spaced terminals, and transmission line to the receiver may be connected to a com plementary plug 24, having three pins on either side connected together so that when the receiver is placed in operation, the plug can be inserted and left in the position giving the best signal. The conventional octal socket is well suited for this purpose. It is necessary of course to remove the key from a conventional octal plug to permit rotation of the plug with respect to the socket. Referring to Fig. 2a, there is shown an arrangement of such a plug, which in this instance is a twelve pin plug designed for insertion in a conventional twelve pin; cathode-ray tube socket. As previously mentioned, key 26 may be removed to permit rotation in the corresponding socket. However, it, is also suggested'that key 26 may be left intact and the aperture 28 of socket 22 be, enlarged as shown bydottedline 20 as shown in Fig. 2b to permitrotation of plug 24 for selecting the position corresponding to optimum, signal. In this manner plug 24 can be removed from socket 22 and plugged into another keyed socket to which a conventional outdoor antenna is connected. The cost or such-an additional part is low, only two terminals being required, therefore it is considered a WOIthWhilB, feature to include on television receivers, it being considered that the saving of time in installation will repay the cost of the. additional parts.

In still another version of steerable wide-band antenna according to the invention, plug 24 is constituted by two sectors 34, as shown by dotted lines in-Fig. 2a, having three pins each whereby the sectors may be adjusted independently of each other. In this manner not only finer steps of directivity changeare available but also the resulting eiTective antenna becomes a wideband V antenna, in the horizontal plane in which a greater pickup is obtained in the for,- ward direction of the V than in the reverse direction. With an eight-pin socket such an arrangement will provide three times as many patterns as will be. obtained with the previously described arrangement. and a greater number will be realized for arrangements having a greater number of pins.

While the invention hasbeen described in terms of specific embodiments, it is to be understood that other arrangements and modifications will be suggested by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A compact steerable wideband antenna system, including av connector device having a given number of fixed contact members substantially equally spaced around the circumference of a circle and a pair of variable contact making members arranged in fixed relationship. to one another to contact groups of adjacent fixed contact members on opposite sides of said circle, the number of contact. members in each of said groups being greater than one and less than half of said given number, means to connect the conductors of a two conductor transmission line individually to said pair of contact making members, and at least one ing one end connected ranged in fixed relationship with respect to each other to contact two groups of a lesser number of adjacent fixed contact members on opposite sides of said circle, said given number being greater than twice said lesser number and said lesser number being greater than one, means to connect the conductors of a two wire transmission lineindividually to said pair of contact making members, and at least one elongated conductor having one endccnnected to each one of said fixed contact members and extending substantially radially away from said connector device with the remote ends of said conductors being free, said elongated conductors being substantially equi-angularly spaced about said connector device and successive ones of said conductors being connected to correspondingly successive ones of said fixed contact members.

3. A compact steerable wideband antenna system as described in claim 2 wherein one of said groups of fixed contact members is diametrically opposite to said other group.

4. A compact stecrable wideband antenna system as described in claim 2 wherein said elongated radially extending conductors are bent downwardly so. as tcrequire less space.

5. A compactv steerable wideband antenna system, particularly for installation and operation within an instrument cabinet, including a connector device having an even number of fixed contact members equi-angularly spaced about the circumference of a circle and a pair of contact making members arranged in fixed relationship with respect to each other to contact two groups of a lesser number of adjacent fixed contact members on opposite sides of said circle, said lesser number being greater than one and said even number being greater than twice said lesser number, a two wire transmission line having the conductors thereof individuallyconnected to said pair of contact making members, and at least one elongated conductor having one end connected to each one of said fixed contact members and extending substantially radially away from said connector device. with the remote ends of said conductors being free, successive ones of said conductors beingconnected to correspondingly successive ones of said fixed contact members.

6. A compact steerable wideband antenna system, particularly for. installation and operation within an instrument cabinet and surrounding the instrument chassis, including a connector device having a given number of fixed contact members equi-angularly spaced about the circumference of a circle and a pair of contact making members arranged in fixed relationship to one another to contact groups of a lesser number of ductors thereof individually connected to said pair of contact making members, and at least one elongated conductor having one end connected to each one of said fixed contact member and extending substantially radially away from said connector device with the remote ends of said conductors being free, said elongated conductors being substantially equi-angularly spaced about said connector device and successive ones of said conductors being connected to correspondingly successive ones of said fixed contact members.

7. A compact steerable wideband antenna system, including a switch having a given number of fixed contacts substantially equally spaced around the circumference of a circle and a pair or" rotatable switch blades arranged in fixed relationship to one another to contact groups of adjacent fixed contacts on opposite sides of said circle, the number of contacts in each of said groups being greater than one and less than half of said given number, means to connect the conductors of a two conductor transmission line individually to said pair of switch blades, and at least one elongated conductor having one end connected to each one of said fixed contacts and extending substantially radially away from said switch substantially in a given plane, the remote ends of said conductors being free and bent out of said given plane in a given direction, successive ones of said conductors being connected to correspondingly successive ones of said fixed contacts.

8. A compact steerable wideband antenna system, particularly for installation and operation within an instrument cabinet and surrounding the instrument chassis, including a connector device comprising complementary plug and socket members, one of said members having a given number of contacts equi-angularly spaced about the circumference of a circle and the other of said members having two groups of a lesser number of adjacent complementary contacts connected together on opposite sides of said circle and spaced in the same manner as the first said contacts, said lesser number being greater than one and less than one-half of said given number, a two-wire transmission line having the conductors thereof individually connected to said groups of contacts, and at least one elongated conductor having of the contacts of the first said member and extending substantially radially away from said connector device with the remote ends of said conductors being free, said elongated conductors being substantially equi-angularly spaced about said connector device and successive ones of said conductors being connected to correspondingly successive ones of said contacts.

9. A compact steerable wideband antenna system, particularly for installation and operation one end connected to each one within an instrument cabinet and surrounding the instrument chassis, including a connector device having a given number of fixed contact members equi-angularly spaced about the circumference of a circle and a pair of contact making members arranged in fixed relationship to one another to contact two groups of three adjacent fixed contact members on opposite sides of said circle said given number being greater than six, a two wire transmission line having the conductors thereof individually connected to said pair of contact making members, and at least one elongated conductor having one end connected to each one of said fixed contact member and extending substantially radially away in a given plane from said connector device with the remote ends of said conductors being free and bent out of said given plane, said elongated conductors being substantially equi-angularly spaced about said connector device and successive ones of said conductors being connected to correspondingly successive ones of said fixed contact members.

10. A compact steerable wideband antenna system, particularly for installation and operation within an instrument cabinet and surrounding the instrument chassis, including a connector device comprising a plug and a socket, said socket having eight contacts equi-angularly spaced about the circumference of a circle and said plug having two groups of thre adjacent complementary contacts connected together on opposite sides, and a two-wire transmission line having the conductors thereof individually connected to said groups of contacts on said plug, and at least one elongated conductor having one end connected to each one oi? the contacts of the socket and extending substantially radially away from said connector device in a given plane with the remote ends of said conductors being free and bent out of said plane in a given direction, said elongated conductors being substantially equiangularly spaced about said socket and successive ones of said conductors being connected to correspondingly successive ones of said contacts.

WINFIELD RUDOLPH KOCH.

REFERENGES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,458,466 Crossley June 12, 1923 1,796,295 Loth Mar. 17, 1931 2,064,774 Wheeler Dec. 15, 1936 2,188,649 Carter Jan. 30, 1940 2,417,793 Wehner Mar. 18, 1947 2,533,529 Spindler Dec. 12, 1950 2,552,816 Root May 15, 1951 

